If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Perhaps the best way is joining the files before sending them to the client. This way you can show thumbnails without watermark, yet the big image has it. This method is not very fast, cause the server will have to do this every time a picture is shown, but you will alway have the original image, and wilil be able easily to change the watermark

2. A digital watermark embedded into the image itself (eg. digimark). These watermarks are not visible but provide proof of ownership of the image if it is stolen.

I would advise against digimark. First it is a paying service. Second it increases the byte count of the image compared to the unwatermarked version and third it wouldn't be too difficult to remove (at least the the point of unreadability); the crudest removal method I can come up with after 5 seconds thought is adding some guassian blur but if I had time to waste on this I'm sure I could come up with something more efficient and with more finesse.

This method is not very fast, cause the server will have to do this every time a picture is shown, but you will alway have the original image, and wilil be able easily to change the watermark

You don't need to build them every time; you just need to cache them. Before serving the just check the filemtime() of both the watermark file and the original image file and if these are older than the cached version serve from the cache, otherwise build a new image, cache it and send it to the client.

well actually there is a way to put your image on the internet and no one would be able to see it at all PERIOD.. it would apear as either a plain white pic or black pic or even just a string of weird character code. but yourself on the other hand, would be able to see it. this is a simple trick some parallel web sites use so that only the people with the 'plugin' so to speak can see the image. the images are jpg or gif but with added encoding that only will show if the viewer has the added encoding in a file on their computer

Any properly web optimized images will not be worth taking for use off of the web. The problem is that lots of people upload versions of their images that are hundreds of times as big as they need to be for web use and therefore contain all of the information needed to use them elsewhere.

Optimize your images before you upload them (keeping a copy of the original on your own computer). If you then also add a watermark into the image then the loss of picture quality in removing the watermark will make the image unusable even on the web.

Best methods for image protection

PHP image that includes a watermark of the copyright owner as well as the time and requesting IP. Since it's PHP, you can header include a no-cache, require a session-variable to get the actual displayed image, or od other things to "corrupt" the image. The PHP-included GD library let's you get away with a lot that is a bit more difficult for image thieves to circumvent...

Security through AJAX?

or.. possibly use AJAX. as far as I can tell, new info loaded via a AJAX call is not
cached nor visible through either view source or save page.... once you disable right-click the AJAX loaded data basically isn't there for the client-side pc?..

Originally Posted by flashfuner

add watermark in the center!
--------------------------------------------mywebsite

or.. possibly use AJAX. as far as I can tell, new info loaded via a AJAX call is not
cached nor visible through either view source or save page.... once you disable right-click the AJAX loaded data basically isn't there for the client-side pc?..

*Sigh* The only way anything gets displayed is by being downloaded to the client from the server. Once it's displayed on my browser, it's on my PC, and thus I can copy it. All you can do with all these JavaScript tricks (and Ajax is nothing but a specific use of JavaScript) is stop the ignorant masses. But most of the people who actually stand to make some sort of financial gain from stealing your images will at best just be slowed down by a few seconds.

My two cents that can relate to this and anything you want copyright protected is after you create something weather it be a image, a program a website what ever your passion maybe, save it to a disc, cd etc then send it to yourself registered mail. There for there is an offical timestamp on it and your signture when it comes back to you and store it away unopened in a file somewhere. There for if you have an issue where you have to prove its your work, its been dated by the goverment (atleast in the US not sure how mail services work in other countries). Its just one method to help protect your work.

Can I copyright my website?
The original authorship appearing on a website may be protected by copyright. This includes writings, artwork, photographs, and other forms of authorship protected by copyright. Procedures for registering the contents of a website may be found in Circular 66, Copyright Registration for Online Works.